Blackwood Orders New Trials Again, DA Calls for Recusal

A motion filed late Friday afternoon in Knox County Criminal Court reveals that Special Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood is planning to enter an order granting new trials in the January 2007 torture slayings without holding a hearing and despite a recent state Supreme Court ruling faulting his legal reasoning. Assistant District Attorney General Leland Price, in turn, is asking Blackwood to recuse himself from the case, accusing the special judge of "all manner of judicial misconduct," the News Sentinel reports.